A Peek into the Life of Elizabeth Hilfiger, Fashion Design Student at RISD

Remember cramming for exams? Sleepless nights spent memorizing dates or art history slides seem like child’s play when compared to the lot of fashion design students who are required to design, storyboard, source fabrics, sew, style, and present garments to an audience before starting their summer internships.

That’s exactly what Elizabeth Hilfiger (yes, thatHilfiger), a junior studying apparel design at RISD, and other aspiring designers have been doing at fashion schools these past few weeks. Here, Elizabeth, who was born in Greenwich (but shows no signs of being preppy, preferring instead a tomboy-meets-streetwear look) and dreams of working with Phoebe Philo, gives Vogue.com an inside look at a student’s end-of-semester life.

Vogue may earn compensation on these sales through affiliate programs.

See more photos of:

Expand

I take selfies to make my day more cheerful. Sometimes I use a Japanese app called Line Camera.

Photo: Courtesy of Elizabeth Hilfiger

See more photos of:

Expand

I choose my models based on their look and their attitude. This is Jessy Lu. She’s a textile student. She’s really chill: She wears tights with Nikes and has light pink hair.

Photo: Courtesy of Elizabeth Hilfiger

See more photos of:

Expand

My collection is called GMO Paranoia, which comes from the paranoia generated by GMOs during every meal. Genetically modified organisms create uncanny mixtures of fruits, and fruits and vegetables in unnatural sizes. At first thought I would design square oranges or use fruits as objects, then I had the idea of mixing them: pineapple-pickle, blueberry-eggplant, orange-strawberry, tomato-banana, blackberry-lemon.

Photo: Courtesy of Elizabeth Hilfiger

See more photos of:

Expand

This is how I organized my patterns . . . so many papers! That same day I resolved some styling issues in the studio and somehow didn’t leave until 2 a.m.

I made a few Photoshop collages of my face on food. I do this for fun sometimes and hang them as mobiles on the ceiling of my studio. My teachers say I unify the class and make everything laugh. I’m just entertaining myself.

Photo: Courtesy of Elizabeth Hilfiger

See more photos of:

Expand

I’m so into pixelated things. When I saw this T-shirt at Colette, I said, “I need this!”

Photo: Courtesy of Elizabeth Hilfiger

See more photos of:

Expand

“Backstage” before my final crit, from left to right: Jessy Lu is wearing a short-sleeved pique button-up that is half pickle. This is done with pixelated embroidery in green and finished with gel medium. Angie Jiyun Kim in my eggplant/blueberry hybrid button-up, banana-motif jacket, and gray trousers. Elpi Saranti, is wearing half-check pants, half pinstripes. The shirt is a yellow camel hair with a neoprene cube in the back that has a pixelated lemon shape in gel medium. The face masks are accessories to show the paranoia of GMOs, and also a commentary on the pollution we face every day.